As part of an effort to replace IT designated PCs and mobile phones with devices employees want, Clorox has dropped RIM's BlackBerry and workers have overwhelmingly selected iPhones instead.

According to a report by Compuerworld, the company stopped issuing BlackBerry phones and gave employees a choice between Apple's iPhone, Android models, or Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

Of the 2,000 smartphones the company has issued under the new plan, 92 percent are iPhones, while 6 percent picked Android and 2 percent chose a WP7 model.

RIM's BlackBerry has long been the corporate choice of IT managers, ostensibly because of its centralized management and security credentials. However, messaging had largely become a cloud service, making the device itself less important.

"We live in public cloud for mail and messaging," explained Clorox' chief information officer Ralph Loura. "I don't have to worry about security because I don't sync data to the iPhones. It remains in the cloud.

"My job is about how to be the chief risk officer, yet provide choice and flexibility. It's about putting apps and logistics in the cloud and pushing the user interface to the edge," he said.

Loura is also beginning an iPad pilot program, and notes that while nobody volunteers "take my laptop and replace with iPad," he does think it can be used to run cloud-based business apps.

"What I want [to do is] figure out how to take that business intelligence app or workflow app and figure out way to have it be accessed in an intuitive way from the iPad," he stated in the report.

If I were Clorox's employee, I'd be extremely happy to get an iPhone instead of a Blackberry, but if I were Clorox's management, I'd definitely ask my tech team to block every non-business related app from the employee's iPhones. Otherwise prepare to hire more people because efficiency is going to drop very quickly in the near future.

no sarcasm, no offense, but is that not what happened? ie even reading the article, seems like out of 2000 so far, 92% were iPhones

No, that’s not what happened. The choice was between iPhone and Android (and iPhone and Windows), not iPhone and BlackBerry as the headline suggests. There WAS no BlackBerry choice at Clorox anymore. bcahill009 is right.

No, thats not what happened. The choice was between iPhone and Android (and iPhone and Windows), not iPhone and BlackBerry as the headline suggests. There WAS no BlackBerry choice at Clorox anymore. bcahill009 is right.

If anyone were to read the title only they would think the employees chose between iPhones and Blackberry's and 92% chose iPhones.

Wow. I guess it pays to actually read the article.

But, at the end of the day, it's still 2000 Blackberries that were replaced. Sure, it wasn't an active choice made, but there was still a choice of iPhone or Android over returning to RIM. So while the title may be a bit misleading, RIM is still losing footing in the business contract world.

Well, this tells us what we knew. All other things equal, a large majority of people would much rather get an iPhone than anything else.

However, all other things are not equal. Carrier subsidy, and pushing of particular phones gives Android a much bigger leg up than if they had to compete on their own.

I would also venture to say that at this point, this is enough of a factor to continue extending Android's lead in the smartphone market.

Fortunately for Apple, the OS market isn't limited to smartphones. They still have no real competitors for the iPad, and nearly 4 years since its introduction, we are yet to see an Android competitor to the iPod Touch.

Yes, the title is completely misleading. They dropped blackberry (for whatever reason) and they were only given the choice of iPhone, Android, or Win7. Between those choices, smart people. Wonder why they didn't offer BB any more?

I knew this story couldn't be believed. Whenever I hear a story about smartphones involving such high numbers, I am immediately suspicious. There is no way 8% of Clorox employees would have chosen a BlackBerry.

Apple has no competition. Every commercial product which competes directly with an Apple product gives the distinct impression that, Where it is original, it is not good, and where it is good, it...

Yes, Apple has won the hearts and minds of consumers and IT departments with the iPhone. However, the choice was between Win7, Android and iOS phones — not Blackberry phones as DED's headline indicates.

Seriously, I don't understand why it's so hard for DED to get basic facts right. Can he please explain why accuracy in his "journalism" is so challenging?

Well, this tells us what we knew. All other things equal, a large majority of people would much rather get an iPhone than anything else.

However, all other things are not equal. Carrier subsidy, and pushing of particular phones gives Android a much bigger leg up than if they had to compete on their own.

I would also venture to say that at this point, this is enough of a factor to continue extending Android's lead in the smartphone market.

Fortunately for Apple, the OS market isn't limited to smartphones. They still have no real competitors for the iPad, and nearly 4 years since its introduction, we are yet to see an Android competitor to the iPod Touch.

I wish I could agree with you but there are plenty of unknowns here. We know they had three choices of modern mobile OSes: iOS, Android and WP7. What it doesnt specify are which devices there companies will be supporting. The most reasonable answer for iOS is the iPhone 4, but what capacity. I would assume 16GB. But what about the other devices?

I dont think the iPhone is an way in jeopardy of being lowered, and possibly could have an even farther device than the other options if we look at devices offered, but wed have to know what they were and what was chosen.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Yes, the title is completely misleading. They dropped blackberry (for whatever reason) and they were only given the choice of iPhone, Android, or Win7. Between those choices, smart people. Wonder why they didn't offer BB any more?

That's really strange because according to Gartner they're all going to be on Win7 phones shortly. Well, maybe the next company where people get to choose will pick at least 50% Win7.

I wish I could agree with you but there are plenty of unknowns here. We know they had three choices of modern mobile OSes: iOS, Android and WP7. What it doesnt specify are which devices there companies will be supporting. The most reasonable answer for iOS is the iPhone 4, but what capacity. I would assume 16GB. But what about the other devices?

I dont think the iPhone is an way in jeopardy of being lowered, and possibly could have an even farther device than the other options if we look at devices offered, but wed have to know what they were and what was chosen.

speaking as someone working in a large corprate IT dept I support users of Android, iphone and Win Mobile 6 (which is my company phone, my bosses choice not mine). I can tell you that the iphone is the easiest to manage and set up and support, Android requires a crazy app called touchdown to handle encryption of email and contacts - and requires users and/or support staff to input a serial key...insane but true. Windows Mobile phones constantly break, freeze crash and dont do basic things well like open office docs, yes, it is easier to work with a doc on the iphone than a win mo phone even tho for whatever reason, Apple hasn't enabled editing yet...and PDFs, the windows phone uses Adobe Reader, just like the desktop ui, its unusable.

Long story short, Android and Windows mobile are pathetic business phones, if you want a work phone, its BB or iOS, period. Blackberry still offers some good advantages, and a wider choice of form factors and carriers, and in my experience, connecting a phone to BES is easier than EAS. With bes, you just enter your email and PIN set by IT, with EAS, you have to input a server name, domain and such, and you also have to update your password every time you change it on the domain.

In my opinion, if it were a choice between BB and iPhone, it would be 60/40 or so - I use my work phone for email, texting the boss and coworkers, and calls, I dont want or need "apps" slowing that down, I love the iphone as a personal phone, but for work, give me a BB with a real keyboard any day.

You can't quantify how much I don't care -- Bob Kevoian of the Bob and Tom Show.

I knew this story couldn't be believed. Whenever I hear a story about smartphones involving such high numbers, I am immediately suspicious. There is no way 8% of Clorox employees would have chosen a BlackBerry.